You got your grizzly in my polar bear

Canada’s Globe and Mail is reporting today the confirmed killing of a grizlar – a bear that’s part polar, part grizzly. Poor fella was killed last month by an American hunter and DNA tests show that the animal is indeed a hybrid. The tip off: “its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly.”

Searching for grizzlies in Washington. Mike Urban/P-I

Just recently a fellow journalist was raising questions about the increased likelihood of odd animal matings thanks to the effects of climate change. It appears the grizlar might fall into that category, as grizzlies venture farther north into polar territory as the amount of sea ice declines.

And for the record, I think the monicker “polzly” is cooler. Or at least cuddlier.